Asus ZenWatch 3 – The Android-based Smartwatch to Look out For!

Asus is back with its latest product – the ZenWatch 3 – which was unveiled at the Taiwanese company’s IFA press conference at IFA 2016. This watch features a radically different design than its predecessor. Like other smartwatches, it also runs on Android Wear and Google’s smartwatch targeted operating system.

ASUS has decided to follow Motorola, LG, and Huawei by opting for a round watch face this time and therefore, this time, it has built a round Android Wear device that features much better performance than its predecessor. The resolution and screen graphics is up there with the best of the Android Wear bunch too.

Elegant Design

The design of Asus ZenWatch 3 is almost identical to the Huawei Watch and a smidge sharper than the larger second-gen Moto 360. After two rectangular smartwatches, this one is sharp and vibrant without a black tier at the bottom of the screen. The new ZenWatch 3 looks like a classic watch with its circular design and choice of various colors.

Asus has used jewelry-grade 316L stainless steel against a diamond-cut bezel to give the ZenWatch 3, a better look and feel than its other counterparts.

The watch is stitched with Italian leather specially for the strap, and it feels luxurious against your wrist. It also has relatively large metal lugs on either side of the watch that connect to the band.

Regarding its hardware, the Gorilla Glass face is curved, and you can have some varied choices from gunmetal, silver or rose-gold finishes to the bezel including several leather and silicon options. Asus has managed to keep the ZenWatch 3 relatively slim, at 9.95mm thick, much thinner than the Huawei Watch.

On the software side, Google’s wrist-ready operating system is slowly improving and is offering some custom watch faces for the Zenwatch 3. Asus has designed the first Android Wear watch that includes three physical buttons that navigate Google’s Android Wear OS.

Awesome Features of Asus ZenWatch 3

The ZenWatch 3 has the capacity to track with 95% accuracy of health activities such as pushups, steps, calories burned, and so on.

ZenWatch 3 is the first smartwatch to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor and additionally having two-day battery life.

The latest watch from Asus the new ZenWatch features a 1.39-inch AMOLED screen which has beaten the Samsung Gear S3 in terms of pixels.

Asus brought to the watch a quick-launch app button, and lots of great new watch faces. They have embedded some 50 exclusive designer watch faces and six different watch themes.

The ZenWatch features a third button that can be assigned to open your favorite app.

The watch offers automatic sleep tracking, with some pretty basic insights as well as it can also collect heart rate data.

Different Colors

The casing of the Asus ZenWatch 3 is made from pure stainless steel with different styles such as either chrome, silver, gunmetal and rose gold. You can choose from leather or rubber straps either in dark brown or a lighter beige color.

Battery Life

Asus boasts about its advanced power management features in its latest ZenWatch 3. Its hyper-charge technology charges the battery up to 60 minutes in less than 15 minutes. Its 340 mAh battery will last for up to two days, almost standard to other smartwatches.

Price & Availability

With Asus ZenWatch 3 you get two additional accessories— a magnetic charger, and a battery pack. The battery pack is clipped onto the back of the wearable giving up to 40 percent additional battery life. It costs $255 quite less than many smartwatches. The company says that most probably it will be available in the US and Germany in October.

Verdict

After its big unveiling, there are certainly some good ideas, and some improvements on the battery front compared with other smartphones. The Asus ZenWatch 3 is competitively priced, too, considering what you get but it will be interesting to see how it fares in the global market.

Rajiv is one of the founders of Nimblechapps, a web and android game development company based out of India. At Nimblechapps he overlooks delivery, product development and often lends a hand to the in house development team. His personal interest include Travel, Food and Motorcycling.